Published: Saturday, June 7, 2014 at 6:59 p.m.

Last Modified: Saturday, June 7, 2014 at 6:59 p.m.

BRADENTON - When former Manatee High School assistant football coach Rod Frazier repeatedly pulled girls out of class and inappropriately touched them, he did more than commit crimes. He — along with other school district employees — violated a federal statute meant to protect students from sexual harassment and discrimination.

Facts

TITLE IX EXPLAINED:

When people speak about Title IX they are referring to the federal statute that says:

“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

Essentially, Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal funding. While Title IX is a very short statute, Supreme Court decisions and guidance from the U.S. Department of Education have given it a broad scope. For example, sex discrimination includes sexual harassment and sexual violence since it creates a hostile educational environment. Under Title IX, schools are legally required to respond and remedy hostile educational environments. Failure to do so is a violation that means a school could risk losing its federal funding.Source: Know Your IX, a nonprofit group that advises on the statute.

Frazier's actions and the lack of investigation by district employees violate the provisions of Title IX. Such infractions could lead to the loss of federal funding and payouts due to lawsuits, further burdening a district already beset by substantial financial problems.

Title IX, a misunderstood statute that most people mistakenly equate only to gender equity in athletic programs, prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in schools that receive federal funds. Under the terms of Title IX, schools are required to investigate when they suspect discrimination or harassment has occurred, then remedy the situation.

Title IX violations at Manatee High between 2008 and 2013 were multiple, an extensive review of federal guidelines, police reports, district investigative reports, court testimony, legal documents and federal lawsuits — as well as dozens of interviews conducted over the past 18 months by the Herald-Tribune — has revealed.

Among the many violations:

-Sexual harassment by Frazier — either ignored or unrecognized by school employees and former district administrators — was so pervasive over a sustained period of time that at least two former students said they left Manatee High to escape it.

-Each district is required to have a Title IX person to whom students can report harassment, and contact information is supposed to be publicized. Manatee High's online student handbook lists Dr. Al Smith as that person. But Smith has not been employed by the district for years, and the phone number listed for him does not work. Rebecca Wells is the district's contact person, and district officials acknowledge she was never asked to look into sexual harassment complaints involving Frazier.

-School and ex-district administrators received information of a hostile, harassing environment from several employees and failed to take appropriate Title IX investigative action, even though the law says administrators should have been trained to identify and remedy such situations.

Title IX exists so students are not “denied the ability to participate in, or receive benefits, services or opportunities in the school's programs.” Yet several students told Bradenton police that they were repeatedly pulled from class by Frazier and made to come to his office for matters unrelated to school. Some of those students said Frazier touched them in an unwelcome manner or subjected them to uncomfortable sexual jokes or innuendo.

One former student told the Herald-Tribune she saw three to five girls pulled out of class per day by Frazier during the 2012-13 school year. Frazier was a parent liaison at the school and dealt with student discipline.

“Sometimes kids would want to go,” she said. “Sometimes they'd look sick to their stomachs. They'd look worried and scared.”

Lawsuits filed The harassment led to a hostile environment at the school district building, where top administrators were accused of intimidation and not trusted with data, a school district investigation found. That investigation and a police investigation also found a similar environment at Manatee High, where several employees said they were afraid of losing their jobs and placed under surveillance.

Additionally, a former student said in court that school administrators threatened to arrest her for speaking out against Frazier.

“It all sounds fairly outrageous,” said Brett Sokolow, executive director of the Association of Title IX Administrators. “There was either incredible ineptitude or there was a cover-up.”

But John Bowen, the former School Board attorney who advised a district investigator not to interview potential victims in its one-day investigation of Frazier in November 2013, said Title IX did not apply to the Frazier case.

“Title IX would not be an issue,” Bowen told the Herald-Tribune. “Title IX is there to prevent discrimination in programs based upon gender. It's not primarily a tool to protect students from inappropriate conduct.

“You don't use Title IX to get at someone who is inappropriately touching students or faculty.”

Bowen said the complaints against Frazier were not “a federal issue,” but rather “a question of inappropriate contact” that was adequately investigated.

Meanwhile, two individual Title IX lawsuits against the district — one by a current Manatee teacher on sick leave and another by a former colleague of Frazier's — have been filed in federal court in Tampa and a third is likely, according to St. Petersburg attorney Craig Berman, who is handling the cases.

“When you consider the totality of the conduct, it was sexually harassing and it was inappropriate, and it could have led to severe sexual abuse of vulnerable students,” Berman said.

Former Manatee High parent liaison Adinah Torres' Title IX lawsuit alleges retaliation by former school and district administrators for her speaking out against Frazier, and also alleges she was sexual harassed by Frazier.

Current teacher Lynn Aragon has filed a Title IX suit claiming retaliation by current and former Manatee High administrators and resource officers for her speaking out against Frazier. Aragon has been on medical leave this year and said in court recently “there was a very hostile environment in school and it made me very sick.”

Aragon's federal lawsuit says the district was “deliberately indifferent to Frazier's sexually harassing behavior as it failed to conduct a proper investigation, reached predetermined conclusions and failed to interview students and other witnesses with knowledge regarding Frazier's behavior.”

Berman compared Frazier's situation with what happened at Penn State, where school officials reportedly did not report suspected child abuse by an assistant football coach.

“Granted, it does not rise to that level, but it's still equally shocking that a well-funded school district would allow Frazier to skate by repeatedly,” Berman said.

“Why would people lie and try to protect him?”

Mitchell Teitelbaum, staff attorney for the school district, said he could not comment on pending litigation.

In October, Damian Mallard, a Sarasota attorney representing former student Dannielle Kaddatz, notified the school district of an intent to file a Title IX lawsuit for, among other things, negligent infliction of emotional distress and violation of civil rights.

Kaddatz has said Frazier repeatedly groped her, told her he loved her and asked her for nude photos. Those unwanted advances made her transfer out of Manatee High, she said.

The Supreme Court has ruled individuals can sue school districts alleging harassment, and monetary awards can reach the millions, Sokolow said.

If the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights decides to investigate Manatee High and the district and finds Title IX violations occurred, there will be two options: The agency can do nothing, or it can take away the school's federal funding, though that penalty has never been levied.

Title IX has largely been misunderstood by most school districts in the country — one recent study found that more than half of teachers nationally did not know what the statute was.

“Most school districts are dangerously uniformed about Title IX,” said Sokolow, the association director. “That's nothing new. I've seen it happen for 16 years and I think the simple reason is the Department of Education provides no training.”

But lately the statute has come more clearly into focus.

A letter clarifying the law was sent to all school districts in 2011, and recently the Obama administration made a prominent statement concerning the law's enforcement.

Under Title IX law, 55 schools and universities around the country are facing federal investigations for the way they have handled sexual-abuse claims by students. Among them is Florida State, in connection with the case of Jameis Winston. Winston, a quarterback, was accused of rape by a female student but was not charged.

Winston won the Heisman Trophy and earlier this year, Florida State won the national championship.

Though Frazier did not sexually assault anyone, his actions meet the definition of sexual harassment.

Sexual harassment, as defined by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, can include “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal, nonverbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature.”

Examples of such harassment by Frazier are numerous, and they happened in different forms.

Among them:

• Kaddatz told Bradenton police that Frazier would fondle her buttocks and legs in his school office, and that she felt uncomfortable during every encounter, but did not report it because she felt afraid. Harassment also was verbal: “Like, if he would get me out of detention or something, he'd be like, 'Oh, you owe me,' and he would look down at his pants and joke about it. It was just awkward,” she told the Herald-Tribune. In addition: “He said I had very sensuous, luscious lips. I remember that because I came home and asked what 'sensuous' was.”

• A female student told police there were several times in Frazier's office, behind closed doors, when he would give her prolonged hugs that were awkward, tell her she looked good and swipe his hand across her buttocks, and there were occasions she brushed him off to get him away from her.

• A student told police she felt uncomfortable when he would stick his tongue out at her in a sexual manner; another said Frazier would always stare at her chest when they were in his office; yet another said Frazier would ask her to stand in a corner for him so he could see her full body. When she wore skirts he would ask what kind of underwear she was wearing.

Frazier recently pleaded no contest to four counts of battery for improperly touching former Manatee female students and an employee.

He also pleaded no contest to two counts of interfering with a student's attendance.

Prosecutors dropped three counts of battery and one count of interfering with attendance.

Frazier received three years of probation and six months of house arrest.

He will not be allowed to resume coaching or teaching in Florida.

Three former Manatee High administrators — principal Bob Gagnon and assistant principals Matt Kane and Gregg Faller — are awaiting June 16 trials, accused of failure to report child abuse in the Frazier case. They have pleaded not guilty.

Former district investigator Debra Horne also was charged with a felony count of failure to report child abuse and entereda pretrial diversion program. The charge will be dropped upon completion.

Horne received information from teachers during a one-day investigation in November 2013 that Kaddatz was seen sitting on Frazier's lap in his office, and Frazier had been seen shoving a water bottle between her legs at a softball game.

Horne also said in court she was given the names of four students who may have been the recipients of inappropriate conduct by Frazier. But she did not contact the alleged victims, or their parents, which is a Title IX violation.

“Not following up on that is inexcusable,” Sokolow said. “There was far more than enough to look into this.”

Horne said recently in court she thought Frazier's actions were inappropriate, but did not constitute child abuse. Former staff attorney Scott Martin and Bowen also have said the same thing.

The two said that is why they advised Horne in 2013 not to follow up on the information and report it to the state hotline.

Bowen also said he told Horne no victim had come forward in November 2013, so further investigative action was not required.

However, according to Title IX, a victim does not have to come forward for an investigation to ensue, and “if the school knows of incidents of harassment, the exercise of reasonable care should trigger an investigation that could lead to the discovery of additional incidents.”

Martin's former job description as staff attorney said he was supposed to work in conjunction with Wells, the Manatee district's Title IX contact person, and Horne said recently in court that she worked “hand-in-hand” with Wells.

District spokesman Steve Valley said no one ever contacted Wells concerning sexual harassment.

In addition, there is no evidence that a Title IX investigation was ever done.

Bowen said a separate Title IX investigation was unnecessary.

“If you investigate the allegation and take action then if there is any Title IX issue it is taken care of because you investigated it,” he said. “You're going to say, 'OK, now do the same investigation and reach the same conclusion only we're going to call it Title IX this time?' That's not what's required.”

Sokolow, the Title IX expert, disagreed.

He said a Title IX investigation was exactly what was required in this case.

“They can't go back now and call it a Title IX investigation,” Sokolow said. “It will never fly. They didn't do step one so they screwed up step 40, too.

<p><em>BRADENTON</em> - When former Manatee High School assistant football coach Rod Frazier repeatedly pulled girls out of class and inappropriately touched them, he did more than commit crimes. He — along with other school district employees — violated a federal statute meant to protect students from sexual harassment and discrimination.</p><p>Frazier's actions and the lack of investigation by district employees violate the provisions of Title IX. Such infractions could lead to the loss of federal funding and payouts due to lawsuits, further burdening a district already beset by substantial financial problems.</p><p>Title IX, a misunderstood statute that most people mistakenly equate only to gender equity in athletic programs, prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in schools that receive federal funds. Under the terms of Title IX, schools are required to investigate when they suspect discrimination or harassment has occurred, then remedy the situation. </p><p>Title IX violations at Manatee High between 2008 and 2013 were multiple, an extensive review of federal guidelines, police reports, district investigative reports, court testimony, legal documents and federal lawsuits — as well as dozens of interviews conducted over the past 18 months by the Herald-Tribune — has revealed.</p><p>Among the many violations:</p><p> -Sexual harassment by Frazier — either ignored or unrecognized by school employees and former district administrators — was so pervasive over a sustained period of time that at least two former students said they left Manatee High to escape it.</p><p>-Each district is required to have a Title IX person to whom students can report harassment, and contact information is supposed to be publicized. Manatee High's online student handbook lists Dr. Al Smith as that person. But Smith has not been employed by the district for years, and the phone number listed for him does not work. Rebecca Wells is the district's contact person, and district officials acknowledge she was never asked to look into sexual harassment complaints involving Frazier.</p><p>-School and ex-district administrators received information of a hostile, harassing environment from several employees and failed to take appropriate Title IX investigative action, even though the law says administrators should have been trained to identify and remedy such situations.</p><p>Title IX exists so students are not “denied the ability to participate in, or receive benefits, services or opportunities in the school's programs.” Yet several students told Bradenton police that they were repeatedly pulled from class by Frazier and made to come to his office for matters unrelated to school. Some of those students said Frazier touched them in an unwelcome manner or subjected them to uncomfortable sexual jokes or innuendo.</p><p>One former student told the Herald-Tribune she saw three to five girls pulled out of class per day by Frazier during the 2012-13 school year. Frazier was a parent liaison at the school and dealt with student discipline.</p><p>“Sometimes kids would want to go,” she said. “Sometimes they'd look sick to their stomachs. They'd look worried and scared.”</p><p>Lawsuits filed The harassment led to a hostile environment at the school district building, where top administrators were accused of intimidation and not trusted with data, a school district investigation found. That investigation and a police investigation also found a similar environment at Manatee High, where several employees said they were afraid of losing their jobs and placed under surveillance. </p><p>Additionally, a former student said in court that school administrators threatened to arrest her for speaking out against Frazier.</p><p>“It all sounds fairly outrageous,” said Brett Sokolow, executive director of the Association of Title IX Administrators. “There was either incredible ineptitude or there was a cover-up.”</p><p>But John Bowen, the former School Board attorney who advised a district investigator not to interview potential victims in its one-day investigation of Frazier in November 2013, said Title IX did not apply to the Frazier case.</p><p>“Title IX would not be an issue,” Bowen told the Herald-Tribune. “Title IX is there to prevent discrimination in programs based upon gender. It's not primarily a tool to protect students from inappropriate conduct.</p><p>“You don't use Title IX to get at someone who is inappropriately touching students or faculty.”</p><p>Bowen said the complaints against Frazier were not “a federal issue,” but rather “a question of inappropriate contact” that was adequately investigated.</p><p>Meanwhile, two individual Title IX lawsuits against the district — one by a current Manatee teacher on sick leave and another by a former colleague of Frazier's — have been filed in federal court in Tampa and a third is likely, according to St. Petersburg attorney Craig Berman, who is handling the cases.</p><p>“When you consider the totality of the conduct, it was sexually harassing and it was inappropriate, and it could have led to severe sexual abuse of vulnerable students,” Berman said.</p><p>Former Manatee High parent liaison Adinah Torres' Title IX lawsuit alleges retaliation by former school and district administrators for her speaking out against Frazier, and also alleges she was sexual harassed by Frazier.</p><p>Current teacher Lynn Aragon has filed a Title IX suit claiming retaliation by current and former Manatee High administrators and resource officers for her speaking out against Frazier. Aragon has been on medical leave this year and said in court recently “there was a very hostile environment in school and it made me very sick.”</p><p>Aragon's federal lawsuit says the district was “deliberately indifferent to Frazier's sexually harassing behavior as it failed to conduct a proper investigation, reached predetermined conclusions and failed to interview students and other witnesses with knowledge regarding Frazier's behavior.”</p><p>Berman compared Frazier's situation with what happened at Penn State, where school officials reportedly did not report suspected child abuse by an assistant football coach.</p><p>“Granted, it does not rise to that level, but it's still equally shocking that a well-funded school district would allow Frazier to skate by repeatedly,” Berman said.</p><p>“Why would people lie and try to protect him?”</p><p>Mitchell Teitelbaum, staff attorney for the school district, said he could not comment on pending litigation.</p><p>In October, Damian Mallard, a Sarasota attorney representing former student Dannielle Kaddatz, notified the school district of an intent to file a Title IX lawsuit for, among other things, negligent infliction of emotional distress and violation of civil rights. </p><p>Kaddatz has said Frazier repeatedly groped her, told her he loved her and asked her for nude photos. Those unwanted advances made her transfer out of Manatee High, she said.</p><p>The Supreme Court has ruled individuals can sue school districts alleging harassment, and monetary awards can reach the millions, Sokolow said.</p><p>If the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights decides to investigate Manatee High and the district and finds Title IX violations occurred, there will be two options: The agency can do nothing, or it can take away the school's federal funding, though that penalty has never been levied.</p><p>Title IX has largely been misunderstood by most school districts in the country — one recent study found that more than half of teachers nationally did not know what the statute was.</p><p>“Most school districts are dangerously uniformed about Title IX,” said Sokolow, the association director. “That's nothing new. I've seen it happen for 16 years and I think the simple reason is the Department of Education provides no training.”</p><p>But lately the statute has come more clearly into focus.</p><p>A letter clarifying the law was sent to all school districts in 2011, and recently the Obama administration made a prominent statement concerning the law's enforcement.</p><p>Under Title IX law, 55 schools and universities around the country are facing federal investigations for the way they have handled sexual-abuse claims by students. Among them is Florida State, in connection with the case of Jameis Winston. Winston, a quarterback, was accused of rape by a female student but was not charged.</p><p>Winston won the Heisman Trophy and earlier this year, Florida State won the national championship.</p><p>Though Frazier did not sexually assault anyone, his actions meet the definition of sexual harassment.</p><p>Sexual harassment, as defined by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, can include “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal, nonverbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature.”</p><p>Examples of such harassment by Frazier are numerous, and they happened in different forms.</p><p>Among them:</p><p>• Kaddatz told Bradenton police that Frazier would fondle her buttocks and legs in his school office, and that she felt uncomfortable during every encounter, but did not report it because she felt afraid. Harassment also was verbal: “Like, if he would get me out of detention or something, he'd be like, 'Oh, you owe me,' and he would look down at his pants and joke about it. It was just awkward,” she told the Herald-Tribune. In addition: “He said I had very sensuous, luscious lips. I remember that because I came home and asked what 'sensuous' was.”</p><p>• A female student told police there were several times in Frazier's office, behind closed doors, when he would give her prolonged hugs that were awkward, tell her she looked good and swipe his hand across her buttocks, and there were occasions she brushed him off to get him away from her.</p><p>• A student told police she felt uncomfortable when he would stick his tongue out at her in a sexual manner; another said Frazier would always stare at her chest when they were in his office; yet another said Frazier would ask her to stand in a corner for him so he could see her full body. When she wore skirts he would ask what kind of underwear she was wearing.</p><p>Frazier recently pleaded no contest to four counts of battery for improperly touching former Manatee female students and an employee. </p><p>He also pleaded no contest to two counts of interfering with a student's attendance.</p><p>Prosecutors dropped three counts of battery and one count of interfering with attendance.</p><p>Frazier received three years of probation and six months of house arrest.</p><p>He will not be allowed to resume coaching or teaching in Florida.</p><p>Three former Manatee High administrators — principal Bob Gagnon and assistant principals Matt Kane and Gregg Faller — are awaiting June 16 trials, accused of failure to report child abuse in the Frazier case. They have pleaded not guilty.</p><p>Former district investigator Debra Horne also was charged with a felony count of failure to report child abuse and entereda pretrial diversion program. The charge will be dropped upon completion.</p><p>Horne received information from teachers during a one-day investigation in November 2013 that Kaddatz was seen sitting on Frazier's lap in his office, and Frazier had been seen shoving a water bottle between her legs at a softball game.</p><p>Horne also said in court she was given the names of four students who may have been the recipients of inappropriate conduct by Frazier. But she did not contact the alleged victims, or their parents, which is a Title IX violation.</p><p>“Not following up on that is inexcusable,” Sokolow said. “There was far more than enough to look into this.”</p><p>Horne said recently in court she thought Frazier's actions were inappropriate, but did not constitute child abuse. Former staff attorney Scott Martin and Bowen also have said the same thing.</p><p>The two said that is why they advised Horne in 2013 not to follow up on the information and report it to the state hotline.</p><p>Bowen also said he told Horne no victim had come forward in November 2013, so further investigative action was not required.</p><p>However, according to Title IX, a victim does not have to come forward for an investigation to ensue, and “if the school knows of incidents of harassment, the exercise of reasonable care should trigger an investigation that could lead to the discovery of additional incidents.”</p><p>Martin's former job description as staff attorney said he was supposed to work in conjunction with Wells, the Manatee district's Title IX contact person, and Horne said recently in court that she worked “hand-in-hand” with Wells.</p><p>District spokesman Steve Valley said no one ever contacted Wells concerning sexual harassment. </p><p>In addition, there is no evidence that a Title IX investigation was ever done.</p><p>Bowen said a separate Title IX investigation was unnecessary.</p><p>“If you investigate the allegation and take action then if there is any Title IX issue it is taken care of because you investigated it,” he said. “You're going to say, 'OK, now do the same investigation and reach the same conclusion only we're going to call it Title IX this time?' That's not what's required.”</p><p>Sokolow, the Title IX expert, disagreed. </p><p>He said a Title IX investigation was exactly what was required in this case.</p><p>“They can't go back now and call it a Title IX investigation,” Sokolow said. “It will never fly. They didn't do step one so they screwed up step 40, too.</p><p>“The fatal flaw is the Title IX lens was not applied.”</p>